Manhunt underway after parcel bomb explosion wounds three at Monaco residence

By Lex Harvey, Ivana Kottasová, Stephanie Halasz, Victoria Butenko, Elina Baudier Kim, CNN

(CNN) — Authorities in the wealthy city-state of Monaco have launched a manhunt that’s stretched across the border into France after three people were wounded in an explosion caused by a bomb planted in a residential building.

Monaco’s Prosecutor General Stéphane Thibault called the bombing an “attempted assassination” in a news conference on Tuesday, ruling out terrorism as the motive.

Thibault said that an unidentified suspect placed a parcel bomb in a residential building just before 9 p.m. local time on Monday. The bomb went off shortly after that, when three people who live in an appartment on the ground floor of the building arrived home, he added. All three – two adults and a child – were injured in the blast and taken to a hospital in Nice in France, according to the authorities.

Two more people wounded by glass debris on the street outside the building, Thibault said.

CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV reported that the target of the explosion was the Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolaiev. Thibault refused to identify the victims in the news conference, only saying that a male victim was a resident of Monaco since 2021.

Yermolaiev has left Ukraine and renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019. According to publicly available documents, the 58-year old oligarch is now a citizen of Cyprus. According to the Ukrainian version of the Forbes magazine, he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship because he wanted “international protection.”

“The Ukrainian judicial system, to put it mildly, is not perfect, and the tax system is not objective,” he was quoted by Forbes as saying.

Thibault said on Tuesday that the authorities have not yet been able to speak to the victims. He said that while one of the adult victims is no longer in critical condition, another one remains critical.

Large manhunt

Yermolaiev made his fortune in Dnipro, the south-eastern Ukrainian city during the wild post-soviet years. He was mostly focused on real estate and was, at one point, ranked among the richest Ukrainians.

Yermolaiev has been sanctioned by Kyiv in December 2023 for doing business in the Russian-occupied Crimea, an allegation he denied in an interview with Ukrainian media.

The suspect in Monday’s incident was caught on camera fleeing to Beausoleil, a French town which borders Monaco, the town’s mayor Gérard Spinelli said in a press conference, according to the Associated Press.

A photograph of the suspect was shared by BFMTV, showing a man wearing a black jumper, light-coloured trousers a black bucket hat running away.

A manhunt involving dozens of law enforcement officers from both Monaco and France was under way.

About 84 police officers and 50 French and Monégasque firefighters have been deployed to the scene, according to the government. CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV reported that some 40 French soldiers were assisting with the chase.

Violent crime is virtually nonexistent in Monaco, a city state located on the Mediterranean Sea, home to roughly 40,000 people and known as a playground for the wealthy thanks to its generous tax regime.

Monaco’s Prince Albert II said in a statement that “all the relevant State services are currently mobilized, in close cooperation with the French authorities.”

“We trust them to establish the circumstances of this tragedy as swiftly as possible, to identify those responsible and to provide every necessary response, at every level.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Mustafa Qadri contributed reporting.